Sean Anthony Sullivan Declares "Rock and Roll Will Save Us All" with New Album

Fueled by years on stage and in the studio, Sullivan reconnected with longtime collaborator Casey DeMott and brought in drummer Luke Lindsay to spark a new chapter in 2023. Over the past two-plus years, they've logged miles across Michigan stages and released a run of singles and EPs. But this record is different. The culmination of sweat and brotherhood, distilled into songs that carry their trademark swagger, groove, and urgency. "For me, albums like Sticky Fingers or Darkness on the Edge of Town are the bar," Sullivan explains. "They're bold and expansive, but they never lose their heart or attitude. That's what we wanted — a record that grooves, that explores, but stays rooted in who we are. When we play, we don't stand still, and the hope was always that you wouldn't be able to either."

Rock and Roll Will Save Us All wasn't confined to one room. The songs were captured across three studios, each leaving its mark on the record. At Sweetwater Studios' world-class Studio A in Fort Wayne, Indiana, the band leaned into its muscle-car punch with kid-in-a-candy-store access to the finest gear. At Willis Sound in Willis, Michigan (outside Detroit), the sessions tapped into the big room of the old church, the Steinway grand piano, and the soul of Michigan's creative history. And at Sullivan's own Sonicwagon in Lansing, the record found its engine room. Together, these rooms shaped an album that's both polished and raw, steeped in Midwest DNA yet driven by the urgency of a band in motion.

From the start, Sullivan envisioned the album as an analog experience; built for vinyl and cassette, crafted with sequencing and dynamics in mind. "There's something beautiful about sitting down and leaning into a record start to finish, going on that journey," he says. Each song was sculpted with intentionality: overdubs kept to a minimum, parts muted or deleted if they didn't serve the song. "We leaned into the fun—a talk box, a Moog, some claps. But never just because we could. Every part had to earn its place, driving the song and its spirit higher."

The result is a record that spans like a Midwest highway and cuts like a muscle car off the line. Forged steel. Distilled rock 'n' roll fuel for anyone chasing a feeling. It's a statement of who the band has become: three players locked in, a brotherhood-fueled sound, pistons firing in turn, grooves that move like a flywheel. Steady. Unrelenting.

This is rock 'n' roll that moves. Swagger and groove are baked into every track, urgent and unrelenting, rooted in the Midwest muscle that raised it. The songs hit with the strut of the Stones and The Black Crowes, the force of ZZ Top and Mountain, and the humanity and storytelling of Seger and Springsteen. Keeping it modern, Sullivan and crew weave in familiar tonalities, but the record is a start-to-finish celebration of rock 'n' roll.

Fans hear echoes from across the rock spectrum: no holds barred riff rock, heartland anthems, Southern rock, even funk. Sullivan puts it even simpler: "At the end of the day, it's the roll in rock 'n' roll that defines us. We want songs that groove, that lift you up, that make you feel alive and forget the day's worries, that's what we mean by 'will save us all.'"

Across the record, you'll find choruses that stand up like Detroit steel, riffs that burn with Slash or Page's calculated reckless abandon, and breakdowns that breathe with soul and gravity. But what truly defines the band is their interplay and brotherhood. It's the way each player takes a turn, passing the baton through drum fills, bass runs, and guitar riffs, pushing the songs forward as a unit.

From organ swells to guitar stabs, bass drops to drum fills, and even flashes of talk box and Moog, textures sneak in, but always in service of the song. Nothing is ever just for show. The sound is expansive yet distilled. Of passion in one breath. Unrelenting the next.

At its core, Rock And Roll Will Save Us All is about urgency. It's about refusing to wait for life to start and twisting that throttle. "So much of this record is about the hunger to feel something real right now," Sullivan explains. "That's where the title comes from. Rock 'n' roll has always been an outlet. It has the power to pull you out of your own head, out of the grind, and remind you what it feels like to be alive."

The songs dig into different shades of that urgency. "Cry For More" is hungry and insatiable, chasing the rush even when you know it won't be enough. "99 Degrees" turns up the impatience with lust and heat, a sweat-soaked strut about desire that won't wait. "Eyes Glued to the Pavement" turns that energy forward, refusing to live in the rearview. Other tracks lean into themes of lust, reckless abandon, or brotherhood, but always with the same undercurrent: letting go and giving yourself over fully—to living and to the music.

Sullivan goes on to say, "Call it hedonism if you want, but for me it's chasing that spark; the thing that keeps the motor firing, your heart pounding, and your soul lit up." That tension between hunger and release mirrors Sullivan's own journey. After decades of writing, recording, and performing, and after miles spent grinding on stages across Michigan, this record became less about perfection and more about truth.

Sullivan and his band don't hide where they come from. Midwest grit, Michigan groove, and a work ethic that grinds like gears and swings like a backbeat—relentless, steady, always in motion. The record tips its hat to acts like the Stones, Springsteen, and Zeppelin, with each influence stirred into the brew. Through the band's brotherhood, those ingredients are distilled into something urgent, unrelenting, and never satisfied.

"Keith Richards once said everyone forgets the 'roll' in rock 'n' roll. For us, it's all about the motion; the groove, the pulse, that spark when the heartbeat of the music kicks in and people can't help but move. Like the instant you ignite a motor. It kicks to life, the flywheel spins, the pistons fire, and suddenly it's alive. That motion, that energy, is what we channel every time we play, on stage or in the studio. And it's the energy we captured on this record."

That spirit isn't about nostalgia or torch-bearing, it's about proving rock 'n' roll's heartbeat is still pounding, urgent, and alive. The same state that gave the world Motown's groove, Stevie Wonder's soul, Iggy Pop's defiance, and Grand Funk's power is etched into their sound, alongside the grit of the Stones and Michigan's own Seger. Even the name of Sullivan's DIY label—Flywheel Eighty-Eight—nods to motion (and the Lansing-born Oldsmobile company) itself.

Crisscrossing Michigan's highways, Sullivan and his band have crashed stages from Detroit to Grand Rapids, Kalamazoo to Ann Arbor, with Lansing as their home base. Along the way, they've opened for national acts like Michigan's own Sponge, blues sensation Ally Venable, and legendary blues rocker Pat Travers. They've earned a reputation as rock 'n' roll hype men, the kind of band that loves to go on first and take the room from house music and chatter to full-on groovin'.

"Have guitar, will travel," Sullivan likes to say. "Wherever the room, whatever the stage. We just want to celebrate rock 'n' roll together."

At home, that spirit is anchored at Lansing's storied Mac's Bar, a venue Sullivan calls their "rock 'n' roll home away from home." For decades, Mac's has been a haven for original music, thanks to owner Chuck Mannino's continued and unshakable support. So central is Mac's to their story that it's even featured in their "Rock 'n' Roll Damnation" music video, a nod to AC/DC, one of the bands that laid the musical foundation for Sullivan and crew.

"Covers are fun, and we'll always work 'em in to tip our hat to those who've shaped us," Sullivan says, "but Mac's is the heartbeat of our scene. It's kept original rock 'n' roll alive in our city and given us a stage to carry our story forward."

That sense of identity runs deeper than the stage. Growing up around Lansing means you have auto manufacturing and car culture in your bloodstream, with friends, family, and neighbors all tied in some way to the line. "There's pride in that," Sullivan says. "It's why I keep an Oldsmobile rocket sticker on my Gibson SG. For me, it's a tribute to our community. To motion, machines, and music: steady, unrelenting, always moving forward."

In a world of doomscrolling, where music is often relegated to the role of ignorable background noise, Rock and Roll Will Save Us All pushes back. It embraces the present. Its songs were built for car stereo speakers, stages, and people hungry to feel something real together.

"We live in a world hooked on micro dopamine hits, always frantic, the illusion of multitasking," Sullivan says. "I want to get lost in something. That's what I've always loved album-oriented rock. Those '70s records you drop the needle on and just take the ride. That's the spirit here: a record that plays like a road trip, start to finish."

For Sullivan and his band, Rock and Roll Will Save Us All isn't an endpoint: it's fuel on the fire. The record captures the sweat, groove, and urgency that define them now, but it's also the spark for where they're headed. The band is ready to carry their sound beyond Michigan and meet rock 'n' rollers wherever the road takes them.

"This record is about urgency, about living now. And that's what we bring to every room we play," Sullivan says. "We genuinely just want to share in the love of the music together and celebrate living. I've seen it happen: someone comes in carrying the weight of their workday grind, and by the end of the night they're singing, moving, just letting go. If we can help someone escape like that, even just for an evening, then we've done our job."

For Sean Anthony Sullivan and his band, this isn't just a record: it's an invitation. To drop the needle, crank the stereo, to sing along together in a crowded room. To feel alive, to escape it all, together, if only for a night. That's the salvation they believe rock 'n' roll offers. It's the celebration they ignite every time they take the stage.